Experts in the country’s environmental area have released important policy steps to confront the threat of climatic change as the country proceeds towards the inauguration of the next administration and underlined the need to usher the nation into a new age of industrial development and economic prosperity.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja yesterday, Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, the group’s leader and founder of the Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP), a non-partisan organisation dedicated to sustainable policy research, said that after months of investigation, the group had identified 11 crucial actions and choices that, if made in the coming five years, would bring about the socioeconomic transformation needed to help Nigeria achieve the country’s 2060 net zero carbon emissions mission target.
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Okereke, who is an internationally recognized scholar, flanked at the press conference by Executive Director, Society for Planet and Prosperity, Oghenemere Orugbo, and CEO, GCA Capital Partners, Obi Ugochukwu, recalled that at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), President Muhammadu Buhari had committed to achieving net zero by 2060, which would be in line with the Climate Change Act and Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan, released in August 2022 and was developed to serve as the pathway toward achieving the 2060 net zero target.
He noted that Nigeria had also launched a long-term vision for 2050, which was expected to inform the development of its Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy.
He said riding on the shoulder of Mr. President’s announcement at COP26, the Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP) a non-partisan organization devoted to sustainable policy research on July 28th, 2022, had launched the project “Nigeria: Top 10 Net zero Measures” with funding from the European Climate Foundation (ECF), disclosing that the Top 10 measures were later developed into 11 measures after critical examination by experts.
He said: “The main aim of the project was to map 11 key steps and decisions that if taken in the next 5 years will underpin a socio-economic transformation required to enable Nigeria to meet the government’s 2060 net zero targets, the project was also aimed at presenting these steps and decisions in a format that is accessible to a wider public through communication materials that can stimulate and inform a wider public debate, involving civil societies and policymakers.”
Story adapted from ThisDay
